MADISON, N.J. – Catholic University claimed a pair of close victories over the Drew University baseball team on Saturday at Doc Young Field on Senior Day. The Cardinals captured the opener 4-0 before earning a 3-2 victory in the second game. Senior Zach Lipshitz homered in the nightcap for the Rangers (18-16, 6-8 LC), who are now in fifth place in the Landmark Conference standings heading into their final four conference games. Catholic (26-11, 11-6 LC) clinched a conference playoff berth with their two victories and an Elizabethtown win over Scranton.
 
Game 1 Highlights
• It was a pitcher's duel in the early going between Drew's Pete Violante and Catholic's Jon Mierzwa. Violante blanked the Cardinals on three hits through the first four innings before Catholic finally broke through with an unearned run in the fifth to take a 1-0 lead.
•  The Rangers may have had their best scoring opportunity in the bottom of the first. With runners on second and third, junior Anthony Tagliaferro hit a well-struck ball up the middle, but it hit the pitcher's rubber and ricocheted high into the air before shortstop Tighe Watson was able to field and it make the throw to first.
• Drew also loaded the bases on a pair of single and a walk in the fourth inning, but Mierzwa escaped with a strikeout.
• The Cardinals padded their lead with three late runs against Violante (2-2), scoring another run in the sixth before tacking on two in the seventh.
• Mierzwa (7-0) left after six innings before giving way to Collin Brown, who tossed a perfect seventh.
 
Game 2 Highlights
• Catholic got on the scoreboard early in the nightcap, pushing across an unearned run in the first versus junior starter Jeff Serin.
• The Rangers went in front 2-1 versus starter Ross Dean in the third. Liipshitz tied it with a majestic homer – his seventh long ball of the season – before junior Brian Dagostino put Drew up 2-1 with an RBI-single.
• The Cardinals answered in the top of the fourth, pulling even on a bases-loaded walk by No. 3 hitter Baily Lewis. Serin left after six innings, and Catholic scored the go-head run on a single from Michael Doody versus reliever Davis Fouts in the seventh.
• Eric Moore (3-1) came on to relieve Dean with two on and none out in the sixth, and he went on to retire 12 of the 13 batters he faced. He turned a 1-6-3 double play to quell a Ranger threat in the eighth, and after junior Bryan Reagle reached on an infield single in the ninth, he got a groundout to end the game.
 
Top Performers
• Reagle finished the game 3-for-8 with a double after starting the day by going 2-for-3 in the opener.
• Lipshitz' homer was his seventh in his last 11 Landmark Conference games.
• Violante (2-2) worked 6 2/3 innings, giving up four runs (three earned) and striking out five. Senior Joshua Williams recorded the final out in the seventh on one pitch.
• Serin allowed just two runs (one earned) over his six innings while striking out six.
• Fouts (1-3) yielded just one run on two hits over his three innings of relief.
 
Next Up
The two sides conclude the three-game series with a single nine-inning game on Sunday at 1 p.m. The start time was pushed back one hour due to the threat of rain earlier in the day.